Al Pittman 
Al Pittman was born in St.Leonard's, Placentia Bay, nine years before confederation and 25 years before resettlement wiped his birthplace off the map. He began writing and producing plays for family, friends and neighbours when he was in Grade 7 at St. Bernard's Academy in Corner Brook. In 1966, he published his first book of poems, The Elusive Resurrection. Since then he produced many other volumes of poetry, plays, books for children, short stories, songs, magazine articles, essays, writings for radio, television and film.
Among his many literary awards are the Arts Council's Lydia Campbell Award for Creative Writing in 1985, which Pittman was the first to receive, and the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Poetry in 2001. He gave two unforgettable poetry readings in Ireland and the new production of his poetic drama West Moon was acclaimed at home in Newfoundland as well as in Waterford and Dublin.
Al Pittman died in August of 2001 at the age of sixty-one. He was a Writer in Residence at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. In the year before he died, Pittman was a creative force behind the spring poetry event, The March Hare, a Newfoundland-wide festival.
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